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What is linked data and why should I care?

“Tell me about Rome. Why should I go there?”

Linked data is a standardized process for sharing and using information on the World Wide Web. Since the process of linked data is woven into the very fabric of the way the Web operates, it is standardized and will be applicable as long as the Web is applicable. The process of linked data is domain agnostic meaning its scope is equally apropos to archives, businesses, governments, etc. Everybody can and everybody is equally invited to participate. Linked data is application independent. As long as your computer is on the Internet and knows about the World Wide Web, then it can take advantage of linked data.

Linked data is about sharing and using information (not mere data but data put into context). This information takes the form of simple “sentences” which are intended to be literally linked together to communicate knowledge. The form of linked data is similar to the forms of human language, and like human languages, linked data is expressive, nuanced, dynamic, and exact all at once. Because of its atomistic nature, linked data simultaneously simplifies and transcends previous information containers. It reduces the need for profession-specific data structures, but at the same time it does not negate their utility. This makes it easy for you to give your information away, and for you to use other people’s information.

The benefits of linked data boil down to two things: 1) it makes information more accessible to both people as well as computers, and 2) it opens the doors to any number of knowledge services limited only by the power of human imagination. Because it standardized, agnostic, independent, and mimics human expression linked data is more universal than the current processes of information dissemination. Universality infers decentralization, and decentralization promotes dissemination. On the Internet anybody can say anything at anytime. In the aggregate, this is a good thing and it enables information to be combined in ways yet to be imagined. Publishing information as linked data enables you to seamlessly enhance your own knowledge services as well as simultaneously enhance the knowledge of others.

“Rome is the Eternal City. After visting Rome you will be better equipped to participate in the global conversation of the human condition.”